Music on My Mind

Last
week, I was scrambling around my apartment, assembling necessities for a
weekend in Louisville at Forecastle music festival. As I printed
tickets, gathered clothes, and iced down a cooler of beer, my mind drifted
toward Indy's recent festival forays and where cultural events fit into the
landscape of a town whose reputation revolves around sports. To gain insight, I
sat down with local concert promoters and other stakeholders to answer several
questions. Among them were: Is a top-tier music festival necessary for a
healthy music scene in a city? Is a thriving music culture central to Indy's image
nationally? What are the latest developments? What are the possibilities going
forward?

"We
have a pretty packed calendar of cultural events currently being offered,
whether that's concerts at The Lawn at White River State Park to Dig-In from
Irish Fest to Indy Pride," says Chris Gahl of Visit
Indy. "It's very
eclectic and often surprises our visitors when they see the lineup of events.
We feel confident in what we're currently offering, however there's always room
to grow."

John Ellison

Beck closes out Louisville's Forecastle 2014. The festival grew from humble beginnings to include music stars OutKast and hipster favorite Slint.

One
such sign of growth is WARMfest, Indy's latest and most
substantial attempt at a rock festival with regional reach. Dan Ripley launched
the event last year, incorporating Broad
Ripple Music Fest
and Indie
Arts & Vintage Market Place
into a four-day showcase of music and artisans in Broad Ripple Park. For Ripley,
WARMfest's larger mission aims to fund the restoration of White River's banks,
removing invasive honeysuckle and other debris that has limited access to the
waterway for years.

"For
decades, Broad Ripple's identity was tied to the park and the amusement park,
and public docks, and canoe liveries and social gatherings on the river,"
Ripley says during a recent boat ride along White River. "When you look at all
of these things, I sort of justify my vision as not being hair-brained. People
say, 'Well, that will never work.' It did work. It worked for decades."

A
look at more established regional festivals should provide Ripley with a bit of
optimism. In 2013, Forecastle conducted a financial impact study to track the
monetary windfall to Louisville's tourism and hospitality sector. The results
were impressive. Each year, tens of thousands of energetic fans spend an
average of $98 per day, pumping a cumulative $14 million into Louisville. Last
year, organizers invested $460,000 on local employment. Like WARMfest,
Forecastle operates a nonprofit arm, which funds environmental conservation
efforts in both Kentucky and South America.

"I
think one of the reasons that Forecastle has been so successful and continues
to be a success is because we didn't come out of the gates big," says
Forecastle Media Manager Holly Weyler. "We started small. Like really small.
Like 100 people small. So it has been an organic, grassroots growth that's
happened over the last 13 years that got us here."

A
recent Indianapolis festival with humble beginnings is Cataracts
Music Festival,
launched by Jacob Gardner in several backyards off of Morris Street. in Fountain
Square in 2011. Gardner pulled off the event without any formal sponsorship
agreements, just the support of a few, eager, like-minded friends. "I wanted it
to light a fire under people's asses to realize that you can do this anywhere,"
he says. "You can do this in your front yard. It's called DIY for a reason. Do
it yourself. Don't complain about not having a show space. Go find one. Go
create one."

Rachel Enneking / Bryan Moore

Rachel Weidner and Oreo Jones perform at Cataracts Music Festival.

Cataracts
spent two years on Morris Street before moving to Garfield Park in 2013 after
police declined to issue Gardner the necessary permits to hold the event at Fountain
Square Brewery,
citing noise complaints after the 2012 event. Those circumstances led Gardner
to take a year off and regroup in 2014. "If somebody could see that we're just
doing this so that Indianapolis can have something to hold onto, then I would
keep doing it," he says. "As it is now, I'm letting it rest and fall where it
needs to naturally."

"We
can do Cataracts again," Gardner says. "We just have to appropriate funds correctly.
Even if I have to pay for the majority of it, I'll do it. But it's gotta be in
a really unique place. It's gotta be in the right setting. It's gotta be at the
right time. The right bands have to be coming through. I would really like to
do it in houses again, and scale it back. Maybe two stages with 15 bands all
day or something like that."

Josh
Baker, who manages MOKB Presents and local events website Do317, recognizes the value that people
like Gardner bring to Indy. "We need more younger music promoters who want to
go out and do shows and take risks," he says. "We need people who want to open
more venues or change venue formats to be centered around live music. We need more
people buying music and supporting bands. All of those things are catalysts and
vital to a thriving music scene and I think a market has to have a thriving
music scene in order to have a successful festival."

Baker
oversaw talent-hiring and filled a variety of other roles during the inaugural
WARMfest. He chose to forego involvement this year to focus on opening a new Fountain
square venue, The Hi-Fi.
He has a long history with music festivals on a local and national level. He
was the primary force behind Midwest Music Summit, a SXSW-style conference held
in Indy in the mid-2000s, Monolith Music Festival at Red Rocks in Colorado, and
other events like First Friday Food Truck Fest at Old National Centre. "The city
is the direct benefactor of a festival," Baker says. "The festival takes all of
this risk and spends all of this money on marketing on behalf of the city and
their brand. I think there's something there from a city and tourism
standpoint. They should commit a financial investment into some of these events
to help them grow, because the city will see the rewards."

FX Media / Phierce Photography

Michael Franti invited a colorful crew of fans onstage during his 2013 performance at WARMfest.

Gahl
echoed Baker's assertion, saying, "To ensure the long-term stability of tourism
in Indianapolis, you have to have a healthy mix of convention tourism and
leisure tourism. Leisure tourism is driven by sporting events and cultural
activities. We can't get enough of those. We need to keep feeding the funnel
and coming up with new events, new ideas, and new spins on existing events to
make sure that Indianapolis is fresh and positioned as not only a convention
town and a sports city, but a cultural hub."

For
his part, Ripley believes the necessary pieces are in place in Indianapolis.
"There are plenty of local promoters," he says. "There's a lot of people
involved in community development. There's great support for this music
community and there's a million people in this county. That's enough."

The
final WARMfest "Warm-Up" concert will be held in Broad
Ripple Park on Sunday, August 10, just a few weeks prior to the festival
itself. The free, all-ages event will feature performances from Hyryder, Chad
Mills, and a kid-friendly set from Ruditoonz. To learn more about WARMfest,
scope SBW's coverage of the lineup
announcement and
keep your eyes peeled for more in this space in the coming weeks.

Cover photo: The crowd on day three of the inaugural WARMfest. The festival had an estimated turnout of more than 6,000 listeners at the peak of the weekend. Credit: FX Media / Aaron Lingenfelter, courtesy of WARMfest.